September 18, 2005

05:17:36 am News Roundup  

Tuesday, September 13, 2005 - Galway, Ireland

Mainly a day of to do's. I made forward travel bookings while Deanna did laundry. An experience we've had throughout this trip is that you begin to learn the current event of local culture, but just as you become tuned in to all that is happening--local sports, currency rate movements, interest rate trends, economic growth, politics, ongoing news stories--you leave for another country. Events in the countries we have traveled through continue after we leave, and we do follow them as best we can, but usually I don't have time to comment on them because I'm writing on the issues in our next location. So now, let's catch up some random things from countries we have left behind.

- England won The Ashes over Australia on Monday (that's cricket) in what was regarded as the most exciting Ashes series in history. Now that I understand the sport, I find it much more interesting than I would have ever imagined. Like baseball, it's rich with strategy and statistics. I find it superior to soccer, a sport I have tried my whole life to like, but which never really ignited a passion in me. While I can't deny that it is the world's most popular team sport, I find soccer to be too modest in terms of excitement, strategy, and statistics. It has all of things of course, but in quantities too small for my taste.

- The Australian Rules football season has ended and the playoffs are underway. This is a hard sport to follow outside of Australia and New Zealand. Since leaving, I have seen one match on TV in Indonesia (a popular Australian vacation spot), and I have seen scores printed in an Irish paper (since Aussie rules and Gaelic football are similar).

- I've been meaning to write for months that two Pacific economies--Japan and Australia--that appeared as if they were on the verge of recession early this year are performing much better than I expected. I did not get around to noting this after each released better-than-expected Q1 GDP numbers, so I'll say something now that the Q2 numbers are out. I don't have the number in front of me, but Japan's Q2 GDP growth, announced in the last two days, was much higher than expected, something in the 5% annualized range, similar to their strong Q1 showing. In Q4 of last year, they had a flattish or down (I don't remember which) quarter, leading me and others to think they were heading for recession yet again. Job growth there has been strong this year and it appears their 15-year slumber could be ending, although they have had many false starts before. Their prime minister Koizumi won a landslide election last week and appears to have a mandate for domestic reform. This includes privatizing the post office, which in addition to delivering the mail, also happens to be the world's largest financial institution. Whether he will tackle the country's demographic time bomb remains to be seen. I think Japan's near-term outlook is more promising than I thought at the beginning of this trip, but I think their long-term problems remain, and I am not sure that they will be addressed sufficiently. Again, I don't have the number with me, but Australia's Q2 GDP growth number was quite good, something like 4%-5% annualized. The Q1 number was in the 2%-3% range, so the flattish Q4 result appears to be just a blip. Their central bank has continued to keep rates at the 5.50% level. They last raised in February or March just before we arrived in the country.

- New Zealand's central bank has also kept rates steady at the 6.75% level (I think this is correct--New Zealand is small and remote enough that you don't get much news on it outside of the region) they increased to while we were in New Zealand.

- Germany has a key election on Sunday. If we had a vote, we'd cast it for opposition Christian Democratic Union leader Angela Merkel for prime minister. We wrote on Germany and France's economic woes in one of our New Zealand posts. She has styled herself as a Ronald Reagan agent for change after a decade and a half of economic stagnation. France's next presidential election is not until 2007, but already the leading opposition candidate is casting himself in a similar role, and openly urging German voters to elect Merkel. Notable for Americans, both leaders reject the anti-American tilt of their countries present leaders, Schroder and Chirac. Merkel plainly states that an anti-American Europe cannot remain vibrant and relevant to the world. Germany knows it needs to change, but they are fearful of what the change entails. How well Merkel's party does on Sunday will say a lot about whether the country is ready to take the tough medicine it needs.

- We've written how flat income tax rates have swept through Eastern Europe and Russia, and noted with irony that these former communist countries now have a tax regime that we would prefer to that of the US. Merkel's finance chief advocates a 25% flat income tax rate for Germany and now the Conservative Party in the UK is considering whether they should adopt a flat tax theme after being routed earlier this year in the last parliamentary election. (They need to do something--like the Democrat party in the US they seem completely devoid of ideas. Why, they have so little to offer, that I would have voted for the Tony Blair and the Labour party, and that's saying something.) The integration of the EU tends to encourage economic competition between countries, and that makes it possible that the flat tax will spread to Western Europe. If it does, look for it to receive more serious consideration in the US.

- In an election result I don't really understand, Norway voters, apparently not content with a booming economy, being rated the best place in the world to live, and having one of the world's highest standards of living, have ousted the tax-cutting incumbent party and elected a Red-Green alliance that has pledged to spend part of the country's oil trust fund on welfare. That's like eating the seed corn when you are already full. The kind of thing you might consider if you were in a recession, but not during a boom time. Don't underestimate the ability of foolish politicians to project blue sky and sunshine forever when times are good, as many US state governments did when they spent their windfall in the late 90s and faced huge deficits in the early 2000s. There must be some local issues at play in Norway that we don't understand, but on the surface, this seems quite a bad decision. I'm bearish on Norway until I learn more, although I acknowledge that high oil prices can cover a multitude of management errors.

- I've seen two conflicting stories on housing prices in the UK. One said that prices were down again in the most recent month, and have fallen every month this year. The other showed a slight increase from July to August, but the rate of increase is declining.

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September 10, 2005

03:55:32 am Scandanavian Statistics  

Friday, September 2, 2005 - Oslo, Norway and Marlow, UK

As we leave Norway, let's look at a comparison of the five Scandinavian countries we visited in the past month.

Country Population
Denmark: 5.4 million
Finland: 5.2 million
Iceland: 0.3 million
Norway: 4.6 million
Sweden: 9.0 million

Capital & Largest City, Population
Denmark: Copenhagen, 1.4 million
Finland: Helsinki, 525,000
Iceland: Reykjavik, 103,000
Norway: Oslo, 483,000
Sweden: Stockholm, 704,000

Per capita GDP, Purchasing Power Parity
Denmark: $31,200
Finland: $27,300
Iceland: $30,900
Norway: $37,700
Sweden: $26,800

Per capita GDP, Absolute Dollars
Denmark: $33,750
Finland: $27,020
Iceland: $30,810
Norway: $43,350 (#2 in the world)
Sweden: $28,840

Size
Denmark: between Maryland and West Virginia
Finland: slightly smaller than Montana
Iceland: slightly smaller than Kentucky
Norway: slightly larger than New Mexico
Sweden: slightly larger than California

Currency
Denmark: Krone, 5.8 per dollar
Finland: Euro, 0.80 per dollar
Iceland: Krona, 62 per dollar
Norway: Krone, 6.3 per dollar
Sweden: Krona, 7.1 per dollar

European Status

Background: The European Union (EU) is a 25-country free trade area. EU membership increased from 15 to 25 countries in 2004, when numerous Eastern European countries joined. The 10 newest members do not have full rights yet. For example, they are not allowed to begin using the euro currency until 2007, and then only if they meet certain economic targets. Also, they are not yet part of the Schengen immigration zone. For individuals, travel between Schengen countries means you do not pass through immigration--it is as if you are making a domestic journey instead of an international one. Of the 15 older EU members, 12 use the euro--the UK, Denmark, and Sweden do not. There are 15 Schengen members--the 15 older EU members minus the UK and Ireland plus non-EU members Iceland and Norway.

Denmark: Joined EU in 1973, member of Schengen immigration zone, not an EMU member, so they do not use the euro. Same as Sweden.

Finland: Joined EU in 1995, Schengen member, EMU member.

Iceland: Not an EU or EMU member. Probably could obtain membership if it applied, but thinks EU membership would interfere with its fishing rights. Is a Schengen member. Same as Norway.

Norway: Offered, but rejected EU membership twice, in 1973 and 1995. Believes EU membership would interfere with its fishing rights and whaling industry. Is a Schengen member. Same as Iceland.

Sweden: Joined EU in 1995, Schengen member, but not an EMU member. Same as Denmark, Sweden still uses its own currency rather than the euro.

Language

Each country speaks its own language: Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish. Nearly every person you meet though is fluent in English.

Independence

Denmark: na
Finland: 1917 from Russia
Iceland: 1944 from Denmark
Norway: 1905 from Sweden
Sweden: na

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September 01, 2005

02:51:04 pm Most Expensive Places  

Based on gut feel and memory, here is my list of the most expensive places we have been to this trip (some of these are not cities):

1. Bora Bora
2. Reykjavik, Iceland. Clearly to me it is more expensive than the cities listed below, but because of its small size it may not be listed in many of those most expensive cities in the world rankings.
3. Oslo, Norway
4. London, UK
5. Tokyo, Japan. Before this trip, Tokyo was the most expensive place I have been, but it's now not as expensive as it once was. It's hard to distinguish London and Tokyo as each city is clearly more expensive in some areas and less expensive in other areas--I'd have to examine this more systematically to confidently put one ahead of the other. I list London first if for no other reason than to draw attention to Tokyo's deflation.
6. Moscow, Russia. It's much less expensive for locals than for foreigners, but unless you speak Russian, you are going to pay for the foreigner experience.
7. Copenhagen, Denmark

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02:51:03 pm Russia (continued), Finland, & Norway Diary  

Friday, August 26, 2005 - St. Petersburg, Russia

Visited the Peter and Paul Fortress and the nearby Hermitage Museum. The Hermitage supposedly has the world's largest museum collection of paintings, sculpture, and other art forms spread over five connected buildings--Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Large Hermitage, New Hermitage, and Hermitage Theater. Our guide Luda said the impressionist painting collection was the largest outside of the Museum d'Orsay in Paris, but it seemed no bigger than the Art Institute. They are probably counting the post-impressionists and the impressionists together as they did have about three dozen Matisse's on display, along with other post-impressionists. The Winter Palace also has state rooms from the time of the czars. They lived here when they weren't dividing their summer months between the ridiculously extravagant Catherine Palace and the over-the-top elegant Summer Palace. After lunch, Deanna and I went to the Museum in Political History in Russia. Unlike our two prior solo museum excursions, this time we found a museum that had a decent amount of English--enough to make it worth going, although more would be desirable as at least half of the museum is only in Russian.

The weather continued to be excellent--about 75 degrees and sunny. I have been able to return to shorts, a good thing as we are in desperate need of doing laundry. That may be our top priority in Finland.

In the time before and after dinner I edited our pictures, Deanna edited my diary log, and we argued over my August 25 Russian excessive worrying gene joke. She thought it was too mean to include, while I thought it was too funny to leave out. I rewrote it based on her feedback, decided it had now become even funnier, and must be included over her protests.

We had a farewell dinner with the other six people in the Exeter group and Luda. It has been a really good group, everyone got along well, and I think enjoyed the trip more because of the group. The only thing more we could have asked would be for some of them to have been from Europe, so that we would have a place to stay in the coming months! Overall, Russia was one of the more surprising countries we have visited. We expected many things to be bad, and few actually were. In India, you pay a lot of money to avoid the unpleasant parts of the country, but you never fully escape India (e.g., the poverty, begging, dirtiness, bureaucratic approach to everything). In Russia, similarly, you pay a lot to enhance your experience and avoid the bad, but in this case--unlike India--you actually do avoid about everything bad. Further, there is a lot to see here that we never expected. And while we may not have learned as much about 20th Century history here as we would have in other countries (due to the language barrier and those museums not being part of our itinerary), we did learn more about the 18th and 19th Centuries than we expected to.

Saturday, August 27, 2005 - St. Petersburg, Russia and Helsinki, Finland

12:35 PM Finnair flight from St. Petersburg to Helsinki, arriving 12:30 PM (one hour time change). Three nights at Cumulus Kaisaniemi Hotel. St. Petersburg was rainy when we left, but it was sunny in Helsinki, although cooler, in the mid-60s. Our plans for Finland are not that ambitious after eight days on the go in Russia--pay bills, do laundry, backup pictures, book UK travel, and so forth, in addition to a limited number of museum visits. Helsinki is a small city, around a half million people in the city proper. Finland itself has around 5 million people. The Finnish language is undecipherable to anyone not Finnish, so everyone speaks English and probably a couple of other languages as well. Finnish is not even similar to languages in neighboring countries of Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Estonia. I went to the National Museum by myself while Deanna walked around town. Our hotel is in the city center, and everything is within walking distance. There's a movie theater across the street from us; at night we saw "It's All Gone Peter Tong" which won Best Feature Film or some similarly named award at last September's Toronto Film Festival. It's a comedy about an Ibiza techno DJ who loses his hearing. It was okay, 2.5 stars. Deanna liked it more than I.

Sunday, August 28, 2005 - Helsinki, Finland

Rained all day, and was cold, 55-60 degrees. Because we are completely out of clothes, I was down to shorts, a t-shirt, and a pullover windbreaker. Drafted Darius's Washington Nationals t-shirt into service and the rookie shirt did well in its debut. Finding an open laundry on Sunday near our hotel was a challenge. The hotel did laundry for a price equal to one week's worth of room rates, but not on the weekend. Eventually we located a cafe that had laundry facilities, although they neglected to tell us over the phone that they had exactly one washing machine. Deanna did two loads and saved the final load for Monday.

I went to the Military Museum and the City Museum. The Military Museum was the best of the three I saw yesterday and today. Although all in Finnish, they had an excellent English language translation booklet that seemed to contain more information than the exhibits themselves. In addition, there was a computer with an interactive DVD presentation of Finland's involvement in World War II. Finland, like the Baltics and eastern Poland, suffered at the hands of the Soviet Union, being east of the secret line Germany and the USSR agreed, dividing up Europe. Like the Baltics, Finland's enemy was the Soviets--and, having a common enemy, Germany was an ally. Finland's experience differed from the Baltics in that they resisted the Soviets more successfully at the beginning of the war and at the end, and they were never subsumed into the USSR (although they did lose some territory) or strong-armed into becoming a communist satellite country. Also, they were a bit more of an official ally of Germany, to the point that the UK, but not the US, declared war on them. Still, given a shared border with the USSR, they had to refrain from any anti-Soviet policies in the post-war period. When the USSR collapsed in 1991, it was Finland's largest export partner, and the collapse caused severe economic dislocations in Finland. Banks failed, bread lines formed, and they had to scale back the degree of their welfare state. As with most economic downturns, though, this period was short-lived as a Nokia-led prosperity occurred in the mid- to late 90s.

Finland did not gain independence until 1917, when the Russian Revolution freed it from Russia's control. A civil war ensued between the Reds and the Whites. Foreign powers intervened on sides, providing soldiers and material. The Russian Bolsheviks supported the Reds, while the Germans supported the Whites. After a few years, the Whites prevailed, and communism was defeated for a generation.

Two decades later, after the USSR and Germany agreed their secret carve up of Europe in August 1939, the USSR began pressing Finland for concessions. When negotiations stalled, the Soviets invaded, at the end of November 1939. They had far more difficulty than expected, losing something like 130,000 soldiers to Finland's 25,000. After three and half months, a peace treaty ended what was known as the Winter War. Finland conceded some territory, but not entire country as Stalin had expected when the war began. Watching the USSR incorporate the Baltic States in summer 1940, Finland naturally remained wary of Soviet intent, and thus was receptive to German munitions and assistance. When Germany intimated to Finland in the spring of 1941 that it might attack the Soviet Union, Finland signed on. German troops occupied northern Finland, and launched an offensive from there, while Finland did the same from southern Finland. Clearly, Finland had revenge in mind, and they even named this conflict the Continuation War in reference to the Winter War that ended 15 months earlier. Finland quickly regained all of its lost territory and then pushed into the USSR. After a few years stalemate, Germany began to collapse and Finnish gains were rolled back by advancing Soviet troops. Finland was on the defensive in 1944, and again negotiated a peace treaty with the USSR from a position of weakness in August 1944. Finland's territorial loses from the Winter War were affirmed. Moreover, the Finns had to make additional territorial concessions, pay reparations to the USSR, and forcibly evict Germany from northern Finland. This effort, where Finland turned on its former ally Germany, was known as the Lapland War and ran through April 1945.

In hindsight, Finland's coziness with Germany was understandable given a need to balance the untrustworthy Soviet Union. Nevertheless, I think Finland allowed their desire for revenge to get the best of them, and ultimately they paid the price, losing further territory and another 35,000 soldiers and civilians in the Continuation War and the Lapland War.

Monday, August 29, 2005 - Helsinki, Finland

Having seen all of the museums I wanted to, I spent much of the day in the hotel room, using my PC and the internet. Nothing exciting--did things like verifying my latest credit card bill, discovering that Hertz double charged me for our rental car in Sweden. Bought Bill Bryson's book, "Notes from a Small Island," his mid-90s travelogue around Britain. Read about 80 pages. Went to "The Island" at the theater across the street. This $100 million-to-make blockbuster was a big flop this summer, and now we know why.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - Helsinki, Finland and Oslo, Norway

Had a mid-day flight on SAS, about 90 minutes but gained one hour due to time change. Three nights at Best Western Bondeheimen downtown. Had time in the late afternoon to visit the Armed Forces Museum and the Museum of Resistance. The former was humorously disorganized--one room chronologically followed the next, but within the room, which might cover a century or so, the exhibits were arranged in what appeared to be a completely random order. If you did not know your World War II history, you might come away thinking that Hitler rose in Germany after VE Day. The latter museum was similar to the resistance museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. Like Denmark, Norway tried to remain neutral in World War II, but Germany invaded anyway. The Norwegians held out for two months, as opposed to the Danes two-hour struggle, but the result was the same. Read another 120 pages of Notes from a Small Island, as Deanna and her mom exchanged 57 e-mails regarding the Ireland trip.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - Oslo, Norway

A perfect day of weather, about 70 and sunny with a cloudless sky. Finished our Oslo Museum tour with the National Gallery (art), the city museum, and the Nobel Peace Center. We also tried to go to the Munch Museum (the expressionist painter of "The Scream"), but it inexcusably was closed for about two weeks. The Oslo Guide 2005 pamphlet we picked up at the airport said it would be closed until June 2005 for renovation. I guess after an exhausting three month summer season, the facility needed a couple more weeks off. Perhaps the museum director had seen the brilliant weather report and decided now was the time to use up the remainder of his eight weeks annual vacation. The National Gallery did have several Munch paintings, including one version of The Scream. The Nobel Peace Center just opened this year and was much better than the main Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm. The Nobel Prizes originate in Sweden, but one of the prizes, the Peace Prize, is awarded in Norway. This museum had everything that the Stockholm Museum lacked--a list and bios of all of the winners, and excellent use of technology to provide additional drill-down information as you desired.

Norway's subways are going through a radical transformation. Ticket gates are being installed! Perhaps the honor system was yielding not so honorable results. At about $3 per ride--the second most expensive we have encountered so far, next to London's $3.60--there is strong incentive for dishonorable behavior.

Finished "Notes from a Small Island." I think Bryson's writing has improved with age--this mid-90s effort is in the middle chronologically of the three books I've read on this trip, so it's better than "Neither Here Nor There" written at the beginning of the decade, but not as good as "In a Sunburned Country," written at the end. The ribaldness of "Neither Here Nor There" has toned down, but his often-stated dislike of anything modern (architecture, cars, shopping centers) or conservative (in a political sense--why the Tories have ruined the country with their restraint on reckless overspending) does become tiresome at times. Overall, though, it's quite good. As usual, his description of everyday interactions makes you snort out loud with laughter when you are not expecting it.

Thursday, September 1, 2005 - Oslo, Norway

We took a two-hour cruise around Oslo Fjord. The name fjord conjures up an image of a narrow waterway between steep cliffs, but in this case, Oslo Bay might be a more meaningful name. The water was beautiful, but not fjord-like, even if technically it is a fjord due to its creation from receding glaciers. Sitting next to us on one side was a couple from Bloomington, Illinois, while on the other side was a couple from Springfield, Illinois. None of us knew that it was Downstate Illinois day in Oslo. Actually, the Bloomington couple moved to Raleigh, North Carolina about a year ago. They had just taken the Norway-in-a-Nutshell train/boat/bus tour of fjord-like fjords, and their tales of its beauty filled us with a sense of regret, as we had decided to skip this. Our reasons were sound--the tour either took 24 hours (you return overnight by train) or 16 hours (but you don't get a boat ride); the cost, like many things in Norway, was ridiculous--about $500 for the two of us; and we had done similar excursions in Chile/Argentina and New Zealand. During the New Zealand excursion, we actually were somewhat bored. The beauty of everything was overwhelmed by the longness of the day and the similarity of the trip to the even more beautiful Lakes Region of Chile and Argentina. While everyone else gawked outside at the New Zealand scenery, we sat inside reading Robert Kaplan, occasionally looking up to note some breathtaking image or another, and then went back to reading. Seeing as much as we have does make it a bit harder to be impressed. Therefore, we decided not to do the Norway-in-a-Nutshell tour, and now we were second-guessing ourselves, even though we knew if we did do it, we would probably have passed most of the time reading a travel book about somewhere else. The best way to do this tour is to break it in two, staying overnight in Bergen. If we had known about it ahead of time, we would have done that, but we had already booked three nights for Oslo.

Oslo always places high on the list of most expensive cities in the world, right up there and sometimes ahead of, Tokyo, London, and Moscow. Measured in terms of per-capita GDP, oil-blessed Norway is number two in the world behind Luxembourg and just ahead of Switzerland (there is something to be said for having a small denominator). Adjusted for purchasing power parity, Norway's wealth drops, but it still holds on to the number two ranking, about $100 ahead of the US.

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August 16, 2005

02:28:49 pm Sweden - Baltics Diary  

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Spent most of the day in Stockholm; flew to Tallinn, Estonia at night on Estonian Air. Darius Vaskelis flew in from Vilnius, Lithuania where he was visiting his parents, landing in Tallinn about an hour after we left. In Stockholm, we went to City Museum and War Museum. Former was okay, latter was probably good if you read Swedish, but pointless if you do not. The English guide handout provided only the most basic explanations. This was the first museum we had been to in months that was only in one language--the kind of thing that is common in South America but inexplicable in a developed country like Sweden, which has a small population and many foreign visitors. Afterward, filling the rental car with gas proved to be a chore. The first two gas stations took only debit cards--but not US debit cards--credit cards were not welcome. Instructions were only in Swedish. The third station did take credit cards, but only at certain pumps, and certainly not at the first pump we tried. Fortunately, unlike the first station that was completely automated and had no employees on site, this station had a helpful clerk who directed us to the correct pump. Earlier, parking in the tourist areas was a challenge as some parking lots only take local credit cards like a gas card, have no English instruction, and only take certain Swedish coins, not the bills that a traveler would be most likely to have. You might expect such native-language provincialism in a place like France, but not in Sweden where everyone happily speaks English and hardly any foreign visitors would know Swedish. Because everyone does speak English, and is friendly, all of these obstacles were surmountable by just asking someone for help, but the obstacles were surprising. We did not have similar issues in Iceland or Denmark, although we did not drive there.

It's worth mentioning that the reason I'm so gung-ho on English being available and down on places where it is not, is not because I am from an English-speaking country. Rather it's a simple point of function and efficiency that in an interconnected globalized world where people from different countries with different languages must interact, there must be one language that serves as the global language. It's impractical for every traveler to a foreign land to know the language of that land, or to have to hire a translator. Few people would ever go anywhere if this were the case. The global language could be any language--English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Swahili, Esperanto, or Martian--it does not matter what it is, there just must be one. That it happens to be the language I was born with, is a convenient coincidence for me, but if that were not the case, we would have had to learn the dominant world language before this trip, or more likely at an earlier point in our lives. Countries that don't require their students to learn the dominant world language in school are putting their kids at an economic disadvantage, unprepared to interact in the world economy. Countries that don't have the dominant world language available in places where businesspeople and tourists frequent are discouraging trade and commerce and holding back the development of their countries. So on our trip I have praised relatively poor countries like China on this point for being forward looking by being English friendly and criticized places like South America for being insular by not catering to an English-speaking crowd. Overall, Sweden is accessible to English speakers, but less so than I would have expected and less so than the two other Scandinavian countries we visited. We will see if Finland and Norway are similar to Sweden or more like Denmark and Iceland.

On the point of Spanish in the Americas, it has occurred to me that the homogeneity of language in Central and South America that ought to be an advantage for the region has actually been a disadvantage to date. The region has not reaped the benefits of a common language anywhere near as well as they should have--through trade agreements allowing free movement of goods, services, and people. These exist, but are much more limited than they should be. Actually, the common language has made the area insular, somewhat shutting themselves off from the outside world. In contrast, in Europe, with its dozens of languages, has overcome its language disadvantage, creating a union that is to its strong advantage. Its disparate countries have grouped together and realized tremendous trade benefits. Without this integration, many of its small countries would be isolated and insignificant. This is an example of how a disadvantage can lead to a better outcome because it requires ingenuity, and how an advantage can sap the willingness of a country to better itself.

Friday, August 12, 2005

Baltic Facts

Country Population
Estonia: 1.3 million
Latvia: 2.3 million
Lithuania: 3.6 million

Capital & Largest City, Population
Estonia: Tallinn 443,000
Latvia: Riga 856,000
Lithuania: Vilnius 576,000

Per capita GDP, Purchasing Power Parity
Estonia: $12,300
Latvia: $10,100
Lithuania: $11,200

Per capita GDP, Absolute Dollars
Estonia: $4,960
Latvia: $4,070
Lithuania: $4,490

Size
Estonia: about twice the size of New Hampshire
Latvia: slightly larger than West Virginia
Lithuania: also slightly larger than West Virginia

Currency
Estonia: Kroon, 12.5 per dollar
Latvia: Lat, 0.55 per dollar
Lithuania: Lita, 2.7 per dollar

All three countries joined the European Union in 2004 as part of the 10-country expansion from 15 to 25 members. These 10 new members will be allowed to use the Euro beginning in 2007.

Language

Each country speaks its own language: Estonian, Latvian, or Lithuanian. English is common in all three countries.

Independence

All three countries became independent for the first time in the years after World War I as part of the post-war treaties. The Soviet Union seized all three countries in 1940 when Germany and Russia agreed secretly to carve up Eastern Europe, incorporating the Baltics into the USSR against their will. Germany routed the Soviets from the Baltics when they attacked the USSR in 1941. In 1944, the Soviet Union returned, driving out Germany. All three countries declared independence from the USSR in 1991, four months before it collapsed.

Our hotel, Merchants House, is in the heart of the Old Town, just off the main town square. It's a new hotel in an old building in a great location. All of the Baltic capitals have an old town area dating back eight centuries or so with narrow cobblestone streets. We spent the day walking through the Old Town area visiting sites like the Museum of the Recent Occupations in Estonia, the Kiek in de Kok Tower, and the Tallinn City Museum.

The Tallinn City Museum covers the early history of the city, which is something like this: for this century the Germans ruled us, and then the Russians took over, and then the Swedes ran things for a couple centuries and we really went downhill. Then it was time for the Germans to come back, followed again by the Russians. I probably have the order wrong, but it was something like that, with maybe the Danes taking charge for a period somewhere in there. That takes us up to the end of World War I when Estonia finally gained its independence.

The Museum of the Recent Occupations in Estonia--the name clearly indicating that it does not cover the earlier occupations that are the purview of the city museum--covers 1940 to 1991, when the Soviets, Germans, and Soviets in turn violated the sovereignty of the country. Now a word about the Soviets. They were our Allies in World War II because we had the same enemy, Germany. That's not to say, however, that much was honorable and admirable about the Soviet government. They were thoroughly evil, and the Baltic countries--aside from their Jewish citizens--generally preferred the harsh rule of the Germans to the even harsher rule of the Soviets. Political arrests, torture, deportations, labor camps, and mass murder were all common instruments of Soviet policy toward the Baltics. Unsurprisingly, they rather hate Russia today, instead embracing all things Western, joining the EU, NATO, and supporting the war in Iraq.

Returning to World War II, a significant number of Baltic males joined the German army in 1941 to help eject the Soviets from their country. Finland is another country that--invaded by the Soviet Union--openly supported Germany as the better of two bad choices, from its perspective. The UK declared war on Finland because of this (the US did not), but I can understand the Finns reasoning. The Soviet Union was its enemy, having invaded it without provocation and forcing it to sign a treaty that surrendered part of its territory (which Russia holds to this day). The enemy of my enemy is my friend, making Finland and Germany allies. By that same logic, the US and UK were allied with the Soviet Union.

Thus a scorecard of Soviet aggression in 1939 and 1940 includes Poland (invaded from the east, while Germany invaded from the west), Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (all absorbed involuntarily in the USSR), and Finland (the League of Nations expelled the USSR over this). Only the barbarism of Germany made the brutish USSR an ally of the west.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

A driving day, from Tallinn to Riga. The 20-minute walk from the hotel to the downtown Hertz office took over an hour as we walked in circles, due to the miniscule Hertz sign being 95% obstructed by scaffolding. The drive back to the hotel probably took another hour due to Darius's circuitous navigation instructions through the narrow cobblestone streets, many of which are closed to vehicles.

Riga is larger than Tallinn, and its old town area is even more filled with sidewalk cafes and beer halls. Again, we stayed in a small hotel in the old city--Viesturs Boutique Hotel. If nothing else, the Baltics have become a relatively cheap destination for young beer-drinking enthusiasts from elsewhere in Europe to come and spend a mindless weekend in pursuit of the opposite sex. Baltic people have more Scandinavian features (e.g., blond hair) than I expected. This quality in females, when combined with the stereotypical slutty Russian style of dressing present in the Baltics, provides a tempting attraction for a drunken European young man, which I believe is the point of such manner of attire. Combine this with the ubiquitous strip clubs prominent on every corner, and Riga is a bit of a dream stag weekend destination for a group of Irish lads. Many Riga establishments attempt to please all comers--a sidewalk cafe provides an intimate setting for couples, a bar inside draws the drinking crowd, a room in back provides strip club gratification for frustrated males, while the upstairs is a dance club. Strangely it all works, as couples see nothing odd in having dinner in a pole-dancing establishment.

Having said all of this, I don't want to give the wrong impression of Riga. It's a charming place and a good place to visit--100% Europe at 50% of the price.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Full day in Riga, visiting the Occupation Museum of Latvia, the Museum of War, and walking around old town. The former is the same concept as the museum in Tallinn, detailing the trio of World War II invasions from USSR, Germany, and the USSR again. The Riga version had less detail on Latvian participation on the German side. I don't know if that's because it did not occur as frequently, or because they are ashamed it did occur. Tallinn museum rather matter-of-factly presented the view that of course we helped the Germans; they weren't as bad as the Soviets after all, unless you were Jewish which not many of our people were. Museum of War was mainly in Latvian--I'm willing to give them a pass on this point where I criticized Sweden since Latvia only joined the EU last year (Sweden only joined in 1995, but they were part of developed Western Europe for decades prior.)

Monday, August 15, 2005

Drove from Riga, Latvia to Darius's parents' house in Vilnius, Estonia. During the drive, we decided that the Baltic countries rank first in worst public bathrooms in the world, dislodging the prior champion China and moving the US down to number 3 from number 2. Darius thought this was a leftover attitude from the Soviet era where no one took care of public property since no one owned it. Along the way, we stopped at the Hill of Crosses, which is literally that--a hill with a million or more crosses on it (see image gallery once we add our Lithuanian pictures). Originally, it was a protest site over the Soviet's ban on religion (although there are some reports that the site existed prior to the Soviet takeover). The Soviets would take down the crosses, and by morning, the local citizens would have them back in place. With independence, there is no longer any restriction on religion, but the site has flourished, not so much as a protest area, but rather as a celebration of religion. Lithuania is primarily Roman Catholic whereas Estonia to the north is primarily Lutheran and Latvia in between is a mix of the two religions.

Darius's parents have a fascinating life story. When the USSR was advancing to retake the Baltics from the Germans in 1944, his father, Bronius, fled west on a bicycle to avoid the Soviets. As related in our earlier entries, the Soviet Union was feared more than Germany as the real enemy of the Baltic States. He ran into the retreating German army. They detained him, but he escaped the first night. Having no food, he joined the Lithuanian resistance, which opposed the Soviets. Once his hunger subsided, he traveled by ship from Poland to German-held Denmark. He was forced by the Germans to perform construction and security duties until the war ended. For a while, he was in a British refuge camp. Eventually, Bronius ended up in Germany, finishing high school there after the war. He then immigrated to Canada, working initially as lumberjack, and continuing his education, eventually becoming a college professor. Later he lived in Pennsylvania and Chicago. He was the only member of his family to escape Lithuania; some other family members were persecuted and banished to Soviet labor camps in Siberia. His parents spent 12 years in Siberia after a neighbor informed the authorities that Bronius had been a member of the Lithuanian resistance. After he arrived in the New World, some North Americans could not understand why Bronius did not share their appreciation toward the Soviets for their World War II contribution. To North Americans, he seemed ungrateful for the Soviet "liberation" of his homeland from the Germans. As the Cold War heated up, though, this question became less common.

Bronius first traveled back to Lithuania in the 1960s, where he met Stase, now his wife. After about a week, they decided to marry. They could not do so, however, until Moscow approved, a process that took several more weeks. Bronius returned to the US without his wife, who had to remain in Lithuania for a year until she received permission to leave the country. In 1989 with glasnost well underway, but with the Baltics still part of the USSR, Bronius returned to Lithuania with other Lithuanian expat professors to found a university, which he later became president of. Since 1992, Stase has joined him, making Vilnius their permanent home, although they do spend a few months each year in St. Pete Beach, Florida to escape the Baltic winter.

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